Philips and Vodafone partner for wireless city smart lighting

Madrid, Buenos Aires and Los Angeles are among the cities in which Philips has rolled out its internet-connected LED street lighting. Such connected street lights can be monitored and controlled remotely and, now, Philips has partnered with Vodafone to connect the lights wirelessly.

The partnership, which sees Vodafone become Philips' "global Internet of Things managed connectivity partner," will see individual streetlights fitted with one of Vodafone's M2M SIM cards. This will allow them to be connected to Philips' CityTouch street lighting management system, assuming they are a CityTouch-ready light or a light with a connector node installed.

Once connected to CityTouch, it's possible for the brightness of streetlights to be turned up or down and for lights to be switched on and off and specific times from a web browser. Lights can also be monitored to see when maintenance is required or when bulbs need replacing.

Wireless connectivity allows streetlights to be connected to the internet more easily than having to use wiring. In addition, Philips' wirelessly connected streetlights will make for easily scalable smart infrastructure, and they will be able to support other smart city applications in future.

"We are at the start of a new era which will see highly energy efficient connected street lighting become the backbone of most smart cities," says Bill Bien of Philips Lighting. "Robust, reliable wireless connectivity will help make this happen, linking streetlights with sensors, devices and management systems."

Philips says the wireless connected streetlights will help to save cities energy and maintenance costs.